Robot 6

Comic creators I wish would return to comics

If you’ve been a comic fan for any length of time, you’ve come to appreciate the talent and skills of certain creators. Whether they be mainstream heavyweights to cult-favorite indie cartoonists, they’re a big draw for you as a reader — and someone whose work you’d buy, sight unseen, based on their previous work you’ve loved. But just like childhood friends and lovers, sometimes they disappear, and a small piece of you longs to see them again.

Without getting too sentimental, here’s a list of some comic creators I’ve grown to love over the years that have (unfortunately) dropped off the American comics scene by-and-large. If you know them, tell them I’d raid my bank account for new work by them!

Brian K. Vaughan: Arguably one of the 21st century’s most successful creator-owned comic creators outside of Robert Kirkman, Brian K. Vaughan worked through the ranks at Marvel and DC to do both great company-owned superheroes like Runaways and The Hood, and his own inventions. After signing on to the TV series Lost, Vaughan has slowly drifted away from comics with his last series Ex Machina ending last year. DC just put out a collection of his Batman work, but no new work has been formally announced. In Vaughan’s last major recent interview, the writer states that while he’s become embroiled in movies and television, he “craves comics.” Among several television and movie projects in the works, Vaughan says that he has new comics stuff “percolating in the background.”

Darko Macan: I came to know this Croatian writer’s work through Marvel’s under-rated Cable revamp series Soldier X with Igor Kordey. Macan did a handful of other work for Dark Horse’s Star Wars titles and DC’s Hellblazer, but largely dropped off the American scene in favor of European comics work. He’s become a big pillar of comics in his native Croatia with a slew of comics, books about comics, and acting as editor-in-chief of of the Q-Strip comics magazine. I wish someone would import and translate some of his books back to the States.

John Cassaday: John Cassaday was part of an informal trio of superstar artists that sprang out of Wildstorm in the late 90s and early 2000s to big success at Marvel. With Bryan Hitch and Frank Quitely, he became a go-to guy and someone closely associated with the Captain America character for years. But after the long-overdue conclusion of the Planetary series in 2010, Cassaday’s only work in comics has been covers on titles like Superman and Shadowland. Last spring I interviewed Cassaday about the end of Planetary over at Newsarama.com, where he said in addition to the cover work he’s doing he’s also writing a project of his own that has yet to be announced. He also directed one of the final episodes of the Dollhouse TV series and was attached as a director of his European series I am Legion at one point, so who knows where John will pop up next.

R. Kikuo Johnson: Cartoonist R. Kikuo Johnson burst onto the scene in 2006 with the Fantagraphics graphic novel Night Fisher. The East Coast-based artist followed that up with some smaller work in anthologies such as Marvel’s Strange Tales, but has yet to really hit the industry with a big project like his debut. The most recent place I saw his work as doing an illustration for The New Yorker on the TV series Boardwalk Empire.

Mike Zeck: In the 1980s, Mike Zeck became a go-to guy for Marvel with the artist drawing Secret Wars, Punisher and the epic “Kraven’s Last Hunt” storyline in the Spider-Man titles. Lately, Zeck has been the defacto comics ambassador in the world of licensing for both DC and Marvel, including style guides for the animated series Batman: The Brave & The Bold, licensing work for the upcoming Green Lantern movie and a Nick Fury illustration for the UK fashion mag Arena. A recent post on Zeck’s website gives this fan a racing heart at the idea of the artist returning to do a comic book focused on Captain America. Details are next to nil, but I’m reading between the lines the best I can.

Barry Windsor-Smith: BWS is many things to many people — the Conan artist, the guy who made Wolverine cool with the Weapon X storyline, or one of the top artist of Valiant Comics in the 90s. With the recent Wolverine movie owing much to his work, the comic industry seems primed for BWS to return on the scene in some capacity — but unfortunately, he hasn’t popped up. He has scores of announced but unreleased projects floating around, from a Thing graphic novel at Marvel to a 300-page tome called Monsters for Vertigo. DC reportedly even has a fully penciled BWS Superman story that’s been sitting on the shelve for 12 years.

Damion Scott: Damion Scott made a big impact in comics with his work on the DC series Batgirl in the early 2000s. He was one of the artists chosen to get an issue of the prestigious Solo series, becoming the youngest and newest of the pack and did a series based on the Teen Titans character Raven a few years back… but after that, he vanished. He popped his head up for a small 8 page story in Marvel’s 2009 Deadpool Team-Up #900 but nothing else has been seen. He’s reportedly moved to Japan and set-up an art studio. He’s one of those guys that if they came back to comics full-time would be a major force in the industry.

I could go on for hours and drop named like Khari Evans, Andrew Robinson and even Bill Watterson but instead I’ll stop here and ask you — who do you miss doing comics?

Iron Maiden

Roland Gunner

Man, I loved Damion Scott back in the day but his work on that Raven mini was dire. Aside from BKV, the only person I REALLY miss is Tim Sale. Sale’s one of my all time favorite artists and pretty much anything he draws is worth reading.

Rollo Tomassi

I second the Priest request. That guy’s writing is intelligent and provacative. Sadly, Marvel would rather have subpar writers like Way, Remender, and Millar teabag their characters than give a creative force like Priest a gig. Same goes for DC. Fire Robinson and give Priest the JLA.

Greg

I always wanted to see more work from Joseph Harris. The guy who wrote Slingers for Marvel. I see there is a Joe Harris working over at Oni, is this the same guy? Speaking of Slingers, what’s Chriscross doing these days?

@Rollo: While I can agree about Way and Millar, I really think Remender’s doing great work. I know lots of people hated t but Frankencastle was the first time I’ve eve thought the punisher sounded cool. And he’s about to get me buying a Venom book. I hate Venom but this new book looks awesome.

Brendan T

Devin Grayson. She was all over the place for so long, and I’ve loved pretty much all of her work. Aside from a cameo in Girl Comics, she hasn’t done anything I know of since she wrapped her Nightwing run.

Earth-2 Chad

I’ll seventh Priest. (I was kinda surprised no one got a comment from him on Dwayne McDuffie’s death, as he’s kind of the Pete Best of Milestone.)

Also, “DC reportedly even has a fully penciled BWS Superman story that’s been sitting on the shelve for 12 years” is exactly the sort of thing that baffles me. Who the hell sits on a BWS story? PUBLISH IT!

Simon DelMonte

Another vote for Priest, and for Devin Grayson. And definitely for BKV.

I miss Norm Breyfogle, an artist I didn’t really come to appreciate until “Birth of the Demon,” by which point his run at DC was coming to an end. His vision of Batman and Gotham combined the best aspects of two very different Batman artists, Neal Adams and Jim Aparo, and I think it paved the way for what Tony Daniel’s been doing.

And while Denny O’Neil has earned his retirement, and seemed a little rusty in his post-RIP contributions to Batman, his presence as writer and editor is missed, and I would love to see him team up again with Rucka on a Question comic.

And whatever happened to Roger Stern?

JRC

I know she won’t make the top 10 list, but I’d love to see something ongoing from Ann Nocenti.
Her run on Daredevil defined the character & his world for me.
More importantly her ability to play w/ big ideas and mainstream characters always made for a rewarding read.
Especially if given time to develop those ideas and characters.
I think she could do something wonderful w/ a the Doom Patrol cast–in the regular DCU.
Also, Phantom Stranger, Catwoman, Howard the Duck, or a return to her Typhoid Mary character.

Abhay

New York Magazine just talked to Kikuo Johnson– http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/12/famous_-_where_are_they_now.html — “Johnson, perhaps best known for his 2005 graphic novel Night Fisher, is now a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and a host of other name publications. He’s at work on two books — “I’m not at liberty to discuss the details at this point” — and the first comes out in 2012.”

Chris Jones

Lee

I would love to see more comics work from writer Mike W. Barr. I enjoyed his Batman (with and without the Outsiders), Star Trek, and Maze Agency work. I just got his novel, but I haven’t had a chance to read it.

How about artist June Brigman? Her Power Pack run was fantastic.

I wish writer Ann Nocenti would do more comic book work, the recent Daredevil short story wasn’t enough to sate my appetite. The Longshot mini was one of the best that Marvel produced in the ’80s, and her longer Daredevil run was most impressive.

More work from artist José Luis García-López is always welcome. He is almost criminally underrated as a superhero artist. I dream of him taking a tour through the Marvel universe. That he didn’t appear in the CSBG list of top 50 artists is just wrong.

Paul Ryan still does comics… The Phantom for King Features.
Akira Toriyama is working on the Dragon Ball video game.
Denys Cowan works at BET.
Tom Grummett worked recently on X-Men Forever.
Guy Davis works on BPRD.
“Medley is currently working on a series of nine graphic novels based on L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books.” (Wikipedia)
Mike W. Barr did a recent Christmas story for Bongo.
June Brigman produced the Brenda Starr comic strip, and teaches at SCAD.
Ann Nocenti teaches film in Haiti!
Stephen R. Bissette teaches at CCS and writes one of the best blogs about comics!
Norm Breyfogle works on the excellent “Life With Archie” magazine.
Devin Grayson works in the video game industry, but she did have a story in Girl Comics #1
Rob Schrab has an art book due out this month.
Chas Truog illustrates. Check his site for a fun comic strip!
Roger Stern… Doctor Strange: From the Marvel Vault in 2011. Captain America: Forever Allies in 2010.
Ben Edlund is the executive producer on Supernatural.

jccalhoun

In addition to wanting Priest to come back I’ll also put in votes for Dennys Cowan, Crisscross, Steve Bissette, and Ann Nocenti. I wish John Totleben’s vision was good enough for him to work regularly too. I would also love to see new stuff from Peter B Gillis.

Shams

I am the ghost formerly known as Joseph Harris… yes, same guy. There were a lot of “Joes” working at Marvel at the time and I, in the folly of youth, thought “Joseph” sounded really grown up and distinguished.

Now it just confuses people. But maybe it works in my favor somehow?

Jeff Flowers

I have to disagree about Barry Windsor-Smith. Since coming back to comics in the 80’s, all of his stuff has been mundane and unimaginitive. Personally, I hope he resurrects The Gorblimey Press, where I think he really shined.

Michael Purdy

Anybody else still remember Gerard Jones, the guy who wrote the mind-blowing Green Lantern: Mosaic series in the early 1990s? Would love to see him back writing comics. Ditto on Priest, Nocenti and Mantlo. And what the heck is Walt Simonson up to nowadays?

Shaun

Yeah… How does someone know Vaughan but NOT know Y The Last Man? Between Y and Ex Machina, I think it’s safe to say he’s one of the top creator-owned writers in recent years. Pride of Baghdad was a fine read too.

What’s this Batman collection of BKV’s that DC “just put out”? False Faces? That’s actually been out for quite awhile.

Anyhow, put me down for wanting more BKV greatness. Soon.

I think Mike Grell has done other work in recent years (I just haven’t read any of it), but I really miss his Green Arrow run from 90s… I’d love to see him write for Ollie again.

I’d also like to see Jim Lee actually drawing comics again.

Joel Perry

I’d love to see my old triumvirate of D.M.’s back in the spotlight again — David Michelinie (w/Bob Layton) on Iron Man, Doug Moench (w/Mike Zeck) on Master of Kung Fu, and Don McGregor (w/Craig Russell) on Killraven and on Black Panther with anybody!
On the artist side, definitely Garcia-Lopez on Jonah Hex (or anything else you can nail him down for!), Nick Cardy (on a Brave & the Bold redux), and all four members of The Studio: Michael Wm. Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Jeffrey Jones.

Jose

EnnisEllis

Marvel seem to have some great “Exclusive” artists who just seem to do covers and little else – I’m thinking of the excellent Brandon Peterson in particular. It’s been ages since he did interior art and I’d be at the front of the queue for it if it happened.

And what happened to David Aja??? Had a brilliant run on Iron Fist – at the time (IMO) the best book Marvel was putting out. I thought he’d be a shoe-in to take over as the regular artist on Daredevil when Michael Lark left, but he’s done a few covers and short stories here and there and that’s it. The guy is amazing his designe work and layouts are just phenomenal – bring him back!

Joe Madureira is an obvious one. Anyone else remember Tom Tenney who drew the early issues of Force Works in the 90s? He was the latest in a long line of “hot” artists who did a few issues, got poached by Image and was never heard of again. Had a nice art style – sort of a mix of Barry Windsor-Smith and Jae Lee.

Mark “Tex” Texeira seems to have dropped of the face of the earth as well. His Punisher and Ghost Rider (and Wolverine) in the 90s were excellent. One of the few hot artists in the 90s Image never got hold of (a brief Union mini-series excepted).

And Brian K Vaughan from the original article is a brilliant shout writer wise. Loved his Mystique series for Marvel, as well as Y and Ex Machina obviously.

And as an Englishmen, so many artists I grew up with in the UK comic industry who had brief careers in the US seem to have disappeared forever – Geoff Senior, Andy Wildman (Transformers, GI Joe and Spider-man 2009 – he was everywhere for a while!), John Ridgway, Dan Reed, Will Simpson (his Hellblazer run with Garth Ennis was my first brush with DC), Jeff Anderson, Stephen Baskerville, Jim Murray…

I’ll stop now!

Paul

Starro Kidz

Matt

A lot of great choices on this list, but I’m wondering if anyone else misses Graham Nolan? He was my favorite Bat-artist growing up and I don’t think I’ve seen him do anything else, especially not recently. I keep on coming back to those comics and just love his clean and dynamic style.

Andrew

He’s around, but Marvel just puts him on tie-ins for their crossovers (which always end up being terrible) or oddball projects like “Mythos” that don’t serve any purpose and don’t get any real promotion. I really wish he would reteam with Jae Lee, Mark Buckingham (is he still working on Fables?), or Paulo Rivera and do something worthwhile again.

olokin

James

Brian K. Vaughan for sure – Robot 6 – In the blurb you mention The hood and don’t mention Y the last man? His number 1 creator work! haha… Although Ex Machina is right up there. Buying the HCs – so I haven’t read it all yet!

The One and Only

Norm Breyfogle (Detective Comics, Batman, Prime) I haven’t seen him since he did that Hellcat mini back in 2000. He was always a favorite.
Paul Ryan, for all the criticism his run got on FANTASTIC FOUR, which was due to Tom DeFalco’s writing, his clean & clear art style was always the highlight. Comics could use him again.
Tom Grummet was the artist on CHAOS WAR:DEAD AVENGERS. But dagnabbit the man should be headlining a book like the Spider-Man titles, or regular Avengers. Maybe his style is too “old school” for Joe Quasimodo’s rock stars.

Angry Old Reader

Steranko, Denny O’Neil, Roger Stern, Michael Fleisher, Mike Royer, Steve Rude, Mark Schultz, Bruce Timm, Joe Kubert (on Tor) Mike Kaluta and Barry Windsor-Smith. And while you’re at it, if you could resurrect Jack Kirby from the grave, that would be nice, too. The VAST majority of the greatest talents in comics history have now gone on to The Great Beyond, and the modern industry is certainly not making much use of the handful of Giants who are still with us. To paraphrase The Righteous Brothers: “If you believe in forever, then life is just a one night stand. If there’s a comic book Heaven, well you know they’ve got a hell of a bullpen.” Sorry, I know that doesn’t quite rhyme, but you get the idea.

James Hunter

Reiber (loved what he did with Cap)
Priest (I miss him not only on BP but I thought his SPIDER-MAN work was good)
Beau Smith (anyone who has read GUY GARDNER: WARRIOR should see why)
Marc Andreyco (MANHUNTER was excellent and I’d like more from him)
Roy Thomas (look at his INFINITY INC and INVADERS stuff, not to mention ALL-STAR SQUADRON they just don’t write like that anymore, and I love that Roy took the time to do research into WWII before inserting the characters so there was a degree of historical accuracy)
Roger Stern (if you want to know why just read AVENGERS UNDER SIEGE!)

Cheers.

James.

Scott Lantern

Simon Bowland

For those of you mentioning Tom Grummett – he’s been working for Marvel regularly over the past few years, on EXILES and X-MEN FOREVER and, from issue #626, on INCREDIBLE HULKS (now back down to $2.99!).

Mycroft

cookepuss

Bret Blevins & Bob McLeod. Their “New Mutants” work in the 80s was epic. McLeod’s 59, but that’s not a big thing. Ditko’s 83 and still puts out stuff independently, afaik. I know that Blevins & McLeod have done comic related pinups and commissions since their (relative) exits, but I’d love to see more. Sporadic work like “New Mutants Forever” isn’t enough.

I’d like to see more from Igor Kordey – horribly unappreciated by comics fandom at the time, put on a book and into a situation which didn’t suit him (fill in on New X-Men – I still liked it though) but, in his understated way, something of a genius. His work on Batman/Tarzan was stunning – classically gorgeous, but with plenty of inventive, “modern” touches.

Paul

As a huge Bat-fan in the early ’90s, I feel compelled to point out that the incredible Norm Breyfogle is very much around and is drawing Life with Archie for Archie Comics. Similarly, Graham Nolan recently returned to comics after a too-long sabbatical by drawing several Marvel Adventures all-ages books. I never read them myself, but I remember seeing several articles maybe a year or so ago.

Harlock999

S.Mallette

BWS: “…the guy who made Wolverine cool with the Weapon X storyline…”
Really?
I think Wolverine was already one of Marvel’s hottest property way before BWS put his touch on him.
I think John Byrne (during his original run on UNCANNY X-MEN) was the first one to really made Wolverine the coolest X-Men. Frank Miller on Wolerine’s first mini-series also added a lot of “cool factor” to the canadian mutant. Oh, and Chris Claremont might have something to do with Wolverine’s success… ;p

Nat

I thought Damion Scott’s artwork got less comprehensible as time went on (parts of his solo issue were almost unreadable, if interesting to look at). And as someone mentioned, the Raven mini was pretty bad.

That said, I would buy a new Cassandra Cain book done by him and Kelley Puckett (who has vanished into the ether as well after DC basically called his Supergirl work crappy in public at cons) in a heartbeat.

Hypestyle

Stannibal

When I began collecting comics in the mid 80s, it was Mike Zeck’s Punisher and Frank Miller’s Daredevil that drew me in hook, line and sinker. If marvel could get Zeck back on Punisher full-time, they wouldn’t have to reboot the title constantly. Same for Daredevil. If they could get Miller to write and draw the title again like David Finch is doing for Batman at DC, it would instantly be one of Marvel’s best books in years.

I might have missed it, but I saw no mention yet of James Jean, probably the best cover artist of the modern era. He left Vertigo’s Fables after an epic run for “more serious” artistic pursuits, but left a legacy that few artists in the the industry will ever attain to.

Cassaday was brilliant on Planetary and I am Legion from Humanoids, but some of his recent cover work has been sloppy and uninspired. I think he see’s his future lying outside the comics medium for now.

Chris Munn

Travis Charest way at the top, man I loved his Wildcats stuff.
Ivan Velez, who had a really underrated Ghost Rider run in the late 90s
Marcelo Frusin
Matt Wagner as an artist
Liam Sharpe
Jock
Dough Meonch
Ramon Bachs (who may still be doing stuff, I don’t know; I just loved Batman: City of Crime a lot)
Ann Nocenti, definitely

Mike

Kwame

I’m for Christopher Priest as well. I listened to an interview he did a year or so ago at thedollarbin. He said he wasn’t opposed to coming back, but I think he wants someone to offer him something. And I REALLY want a proper ending to Quantum and Woody.

Priest is the first name to come to my mind as well. His work is both funny and thoughtful, and he seems like such a nice guy, too.

Unfortunately, finding a thread full of people clamoring for his return despite the fact that he could never really get a big audience is just par for the course. His fans are loyal, but unfortunately there just don’t seem to be as many of us as you’d think from this thread.

There are tons of indie creators who are MIA:
Chynna Clugston – as the previous commenter noted, Blue Monday is sorely missed
Jhonen Vasquez – Invader Zim has been off the air for years. Come back to comics and do something more than half-assed, one-shot filler specials every few years.
Christie Norrie – I loved Hopeless Savages. Would love to see her team up with Van Meter gain.
Andi Watson – Was as prolific as they come for a decade. What’s he doing now?

And as far as mainstream creators, what ever happened to Ron Lim? He was Marvel’s go-to guy for everything in the late 80s and 90s.

argon31pf

el_caifan

Lets see…
Paul pope-waiting on that battling boy book…
Bart sears-loved his run on jle
steve lightle-amazing artist-sadly no long runs on any book
adam hughes-somebody said it best-covers arent enough!
Joe mad-great artist-didnt like the uninked art in ultimates
mark schultz-amazing artist!
Jae lee-get this guy a regular gig!
Ladronn-what has he been up to?
Travis charest- the detail he puts into his work is amazing!
Alan davis-i’ll buy anything he works on
bvk-brilliant and daring!
Alan moore-the best!

Im sure ive missed alot of creators who have left the comix industry over the years. Peace!

Chance

I would love to see Dale Keown do a Hulk six part run or something and it doesn’t have to be the Hulk, even the new Alpha Flight series coming…maybe a six part run. Also Steven Butler, I know he works for Archie Comics, but I would love to see him again at marvel.

Dave Cummings

Bomber Moran- Killian Plunkett is one of the chief character designers for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. The DVDs have little art booklets that have some of his designs in there.

There are way too many artists that got drawn into (no pun intended) the movie/TV/video game production world.
Steve Skroce does storyboards for all the Wachowski’s movies
Stephen Platt and Dan Fraga do movie storyboards and music videos
Joe Mad designs video games
Dave Johnson has done stuff in animation
Same with Eric Canete, he did storyboards in the recent All Star Superman animated movie
and so on.

I can understand why. They can get paid a hell of alot more money for their work.

altonralston

Joseph olesco

John bogdanove. i love his work on superman back in the 90’s
Tom Mcweeney. the only copy of this guys work that i have are his gen 13 christmas special and his backup feature in gen 13 issues 1 tom 3.I would dearly love to see more.

Brandon Yates

GeminiJED

I have no new names to offer but I’d read pretty much ANYTHING new by:
Joss Whedon
BKV
Christopher Priest
DeFillipis & Weir

Would also love to see some new interior work from:
Adrian Alphona
Bryan Hitch
Joe Quesada
Jim Lee
John Paul Leon
Joe Madureira
Arthur Adams (Its been like 5 months since the last issue of Ultimate X and that is clearly not enough Art Adams for my liking)

Also need me some more JK Woodward!

Ed (A Different One)

Scrolling through the list I was surprised the see Rick Leonardi conspicuously absent until I hit Dan’s post about 3/4 of the way down the page. I thought those issues of Spider-Man 2099 that he did with PAD were criminally under-rated, and I still pull them out for a re-read once or twice a year. I used to also enjoy when he would show up as a fill-in penciler on ASM or PPTSSM way, way, way back in the day.

As far as writers go, I know he’s been doing some “spot” work for Marvel over the past couple of years, but I would love to see old Uncle Rog assigned to an ongoing series sometime here soon. As a writer, I always thought that Stern “gained steam” on a title the longer he worked on it, and it just doesn’t seem like he has the opportunity to do that with the work that Marvel has been giving him lately (though I did enjoy his few story-arcs on ASM during the BND era, and his recent Cap work on Forever Allies). Imagine what this guy could do if he really had the chance to work on a series over the course of a year or more.

And what the heck has Sam Keith been doing nowadays? I always thought that The Maxx was, by far, the best work that came out of the early Image days.

Alan

Jim Steranko of course – a proper story, not just another cover. The great lost talent.
Frank Brunner – yes, what has happened to Frank Brunner? Is he still around even?
John Byrne – yes, I know he does little-known characters, but I want him set loose on the big guns again with Terry Austin on inks.
Dan Chichester – back at Marvel, on something espionage-related.
Alan Davis – writing and drawing regularly.
Steve Rude – much as I like Nexus, I drool at the idea of him on Dr Strange or Dan Dare.
P Craig Russell – still doing operas? How about Ka-Zar or a jungle book instead?
Walt Simonson – on a regular series.
Roger Stern – he does the odd story for Marvel, but I’d love to see him as the regular writer on the Avengers – he does particularly well with team books and his run on the Avengers was up with the best.

Perry

Wow—can’t take the time to go through all the previous posts, but a lot of good names show up in the ones I did read. So far, though, I seem to be the first to mention John Arcudi, and only the second to bring up Gerard Jones.

stefano gaudiano

Luke

james

I,d kike to see Gerry Conway writing spidey again , Diko and Lee doing Spidey one last time(if only for a few pages even.)
. Ron Wilson on the Thing again.
J. M. DeMatteis if his work was as good as Kraven’s Last Hunt and his Spectacular Spiderman run with Sal Buscema.
Walt Simonson back on Avengers or Fantastic Four.
Steve Englehart
David Michelinie Because I loved his spidey and Venom’s been crap since he stopped writing him
June Brigman( her Power Pack was great)
Louise Simonson back at Marvel
Jim Shooter as a writer at Marvel

kevin patterson

PLENTY of talented people who should be doing more. I haven’t fact checked but to my knowledge all still potentially able to re-enter comics …

Alan Brennert: His output was small but wrote some of the best Batman comics (and included in the very first hardcover collection of “Greatest Batmans Stories Ever Told” )
Travis Charest: Even more scarce in past decade than Cassaday
Paul Gulacy: Likewise for past five years, I think his last was Hyperion/Nighthawk mini
P. Craig Russell
Mark Badger: His watercolors for The Score were awesome and one of the earliest adopters of anything beyond pen/ink. Doing his own web comics but wish he was in mainstream comics again
Gerard Jones: Writer for The Score and the initially fun Wonder Man
Richard K. Morgan: any faults of his Black Widow miniseries I blame on scribbly art but he’s a great sci-fi writer who should have been pressed into doing more for comics
Terry Austin: Classic X-Men and Batman inker
Paul Smith: Classic X-Men penciller
Mark Texeira

POP

Ephraim

Bill Watterson Yes! the Calvin and Hobbes comic is timeless but could have made a huge splash in other media. A Cartoon series or a live action movie but there has been nothing since it ended in newspapers. If you pull out a dictionary and look up “Quit while you’re ahead,” Bill Watterson’s picture is there

apokoliptian

don fisch

Walt Simonson on a reg run would be awesome!!!
Mike Zeck for sure…
Ron Lim and Ron Frenz would be sweet!! ( A revamped silver surfer maybe?)
Joe Mad, Mark Tex, Jae Lee,CrissCross,Purcell
No one mentioned this guy yet, his art wasn’t really flashy or trendy…I think that’s why I liked him so much…
Alex Saviuk…in the 90’s I thought Web of Spider-Man was my fave of the family…
Oh god, Busiek back on the Avengers would be fantastic(you have a lot to learn, Bendis!!)

WMC

Mike Hansen

Igor Kordey draws THE SECRET HISTORY for Archaia – there are 15 or 16 issues out so far, I think.

I haven’t seen Darko Macan’s work in the U.S. in ages – about a decade ago, he wrote some Disney comics for European publishers. His GRENDEL TALES stories with Edvin Biukovic are among my all-time favorite comics.

I believe Travis Charest’s interior work is in the new WEAPONS OF THE METABARONS hardcover that just came out.